Fighting Cybercrime in Europe

By
Isabelle Kumar

Imagine a world where criminals operate with near impunity. A place where credit card information could be bought for as little as 1 euro – but where some would put the total cost of the crimes at one trillion dollars a year. This place is virtual but has real world effects. Authorities in Europe are pouring more resources into fighting the wave of cybercrime sweeping the net.

In Hamburg, the Chaos Computer Club identifies flaws in government IT systems to help improve security. Making the internet a safer place to surf, the new cybercrime unit of Europol in the Netherlands has the unenviable task of untangling the web of crime online. As more and more personal information is available online there needs to be coordination of police efforts to combat criminality.

To talk about the peaks and pitfalls of online policing On The Frontline spoke with Troels Oerting who is the head of Europol’s new cybercrime centre in the Hague and Rik Ferguson, technical wizard and director of security at Trend Micro.